In yoga the mind experiences deep silence, yet retains its dynamic quality; intensely dynamic, yet completely still.

The first discipline of yoga is austerity, which means a life of simplicity, the putting away of all non-essentials. There is such a thing as dignity in simple living. A life of simplicity is devoid of all encumbrances. It is a life where needs and wants are separated.

Only one living a simple life will be able to bear the strains of true spiritual living. One must also engage in self study which is a process of quiet reflection. For many people their thinking never starts, as they live on what other people have thought about. One cannot walk on the spiritual path by following the value that belongs to others. In life we are generally told what to think, but never how to think. One must learn to think for himself, and this is self study. One must put the attention on God by turning to God and experiencing God, and this is the highest pure thinking that there is; a life of true aspiration.

We all have afflictions on the path of spiritual enlightenment, but the important thing is to lighten their impact. The causes of suffering lie in ignorance, false identification, attraction, repulsion and a desire for continuity. Each reinforces the other and this sets up a vicious cycle of continuous suffering. So, sometime, someplace the cycle must be broken.

Generally speaking, one caught up in ignorance is ignorant of the fact of what he is caught up in. This is why many who are living in misery believe themselves to be happy. Ignorance generally is referred to as a condition of mistaken identity. This is true, but it is also true that at certain levels of consciousness that is all one is capable of. A person at a lower level of consciousness believes the impure to be pure and the unreal to be real. However, in the course of time, by trial and error and continued growth, one slowly awakens to the real meaning and the real truth of life.

During the course of time, before one awakens, one builds up or accumulates an acquired nature, the ego, and this is the end result of the mind's reactions and resistances. The acquired nature completely overshadows the original or true nature. One then lives by the acquired or habitual nature. So, in this state one acquires some very unique and peculiar habit patterns that we follow for many ages. Then, when we finally try to break from these habits it is virtually impossible, because in most cases we are using an acquired nature to break habitual patterns of life.

We really become the product of psychological accumulations and also of time itself. So, we regard something that has been put together by time as something that is eternal, and we are caught up in the great illusion on the platform of ignorance. This is also the reason that the intellect will not free anyone because the intellect expands on false identification. One believes the perceiver and the instrument of perception to be identical, which is not true, since the instrument of perception is the mind. Yet, when one believes these two to be the same then the I-ness is born and the “I" becomes identical with the mind. With this situation the wish of the mind is then regarded by one as his will. So, the person becomes willful as the saying goes. So, we come into a conflict of two wills, the will of the individual and the will of God, or nature. However, the will of the individual is nothing more than the wish and the desire of the mind. So, there is a conflict, the mind's desire to move in its own direction in contrast to the direction in which God or nature intends one to move.

I-ness is nothing but the human's identification with his mind. Out of this false identification arises attractions and repulsions; attractions being the seeking of pleasures in life, and repulsion being the avoidance of pain. So, the pleasure-principle is at the root of the human's entire process of psychological becoming. To avoid pain is also a part of seeking pleasure. One seeks pleasure whether positively or negatively. Attraction is the positive search for pleasure and repulsion is the negative search for pleasure by avoiding pain.

That which gives a sense of continuity is regarded by the mind as pleasure, while that which interferes with continuity is considered by the mind to be painful. So, we form attachments and denials, and they are the natural offshoots of the condition of I-ness which itself is the outcome of the state of ignorance, not enlightenment. Our whole life at this point is based on the pleasure-principle in which is included the ceaseless effort to avoid pain. So, while one is in the midst of pleasure, one is still vitally concerned about avoiding pain. So, pleasure and pain go together, and in the I-ness of life one sees pleasure and pain, attachment and denial, and this is the platform which most of humanity goes by.

Whereas, that which Is, that which is the original, stands by itself never knowing the fear of being vulnerable or capable of being destroyed. It is only the pseudo that is compounded and vulnerable, and which can be dissolved. So, the attachments and repulsions in life are simply defense-mechanisms that seek to protect that which is the result of the accumulations of the ages.

That which keeps the defense-mechanism going is simply a strong desire to live, which is really a desire for continuity, which is in all humans, even the most learned. This desire for continuity is only a desire for security. So, one feels secure only in the atmosphere of continuity. Yet, one of the peculiar facts of life is that the human, in the constant search for security and continuity searches in a field that is forever in a state of flux. Therefore, because life is dynamic and ever discontinuous, the desire for continuity is an attempt to put that which is dynamic and ever discontinuous into a framework of that which is static, which is, again, the attempt to impart a quality of continuity to that which is discontinuous. The real problem lies in the fact that there is no continuity for something that is put together by time, because in the nature of a time process or cycle it must get dissolved. However, the desire for continuity is so great even the wise are caught up in it. All of this means that ignorance is at the root of all afflictions and that the most all pervading expression of this ignorance is the desire for continuity. Yet, what is relative cannot be absolute.

By life being in a state of flux one does not really begin to live until the effort at established continuity ceases. Life is to be experienced and not to be held onto. Continuity is only the attempt to hold life in a framework which the mind and sense of I-ness has created. Continuity is simply the attempt to build structure after structure on the bridge of life, which is an exercise in futility. Life is a bridge. Pass over it and do not build upon it.

To escape this ignorance of life one must seek the Self. One must learn how to go within, to turn the mind 180 degrees to reach the field of the transcendental, to infuse the Being through Transcendental Meditation, thereby infusing the real into the unreal, the absolute into the relative, and to realize that the road to truth is through the maze of maya, through ignorance to enlightenment.

Above all else, always remember that what we are really seeking is also seeking us.